Asma Sadia Khan, a graduate of Biomedical Engineering from Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (Cuet), has secured a fully funded Graduate Research Assistantship at the University of Calgary, Canada. Her achievement marks not only a personal milestone but also reflects the growing presence of Bangladeshi graduates in global research and innovation spaces.

Her research focuses on AI in oncology. She started working on oncology-related AI projects during her undergraduate studies, and currently, her work involves multimodal survival analysis, where different types of healthcare data are combined to improve predictions and decision-making.

“What attracted me to this field is the possibility of using technology to solve meaningful healthcare problems. It’s exciting to know that the models we build could someday help clinicians and patients make better decisions,” she said.

Asma always wanted to experience research in a more globalised environment. During her undergraduate years at Cuet, she became increasingly interested in AI research and wanted to work on larger-scale projects with real-world impact.

“The University of Calgary stood out because of its strong research reputation, excellent faculty members, and its ranking among top universities worldwide,” Asma shared.

More importantly, her supervisor’s Digital Health AI Lab was doing exactly the kind of work that interested her in using AI to analyse vast amounts of healthcare data and conducting impactful experiments that can potentially improve patient care.

“That research alignment mattered much more to me than rankings alone.” She started preparing during her final year of undergraduate studies.

“At first, emailing professors was honestly quite embarrassing. Looking back, some of my early emails had very silly mistakes. But like any skill, it improved with practice. Over time, I learned how to write better emails, communicate my interests clearly, and received much better responses.”

Initially, her main target was Australia because professors there were generally very responsive. However, many of the funded opportunities were focused on PhD students. At the same time, she was applying to professors in Canada whose research interests matched hers.

“One practical tip I always give students is to maintain a spreadsheet of every professor you contact. Trust me, after sending dozens of emails, you’ll completely forget who you’ve emailed and when.”

The interview process was also interesting. The first interview is usually about getting to know oneself and making sure he or she can work with someone every day; basically, checking that they won’t make the professor’s life difficult.

The later interviews can be much more technical. In Asma’s case, they involved discussions about AI research and even some Python coding questions.

One skill that made Asma’s profile stand out for securing this fully funded research assistantship was her relevant research experience. Since she had already been working in AI and oncology-related projects during her undergraduate years, she could demonstrate genuine research interest instead of just saying she was interested.

Technical skills also matter a lot. Having hands-on experience with machine learning, deep learning, Python, and research workflows helped her contribute from day one.

In terms of extracurricular activities, Asma wasn’t very active. Most of her focus went into research from third year onward.

“Looking back, that decision worked well for me. I spent a lot of time learning, experimenting, and working on research-related projects, which ultimately helped shape my research career.”

She focused on continuously improving her technical skills, reading research papers, and gaining hands-on experience through projects. Over time, small improvements accumulated, and that’s what really made a difference.

There’s a misconception that only scoring in GRE can help in attaining a RA position in foreign universities. Asma stands out from this assembly.

She didn’t take the GRE. For English proficiency, she appeared for IELTS. Overall, she found it fairly manageable, especially the listening and reading sections. However, the writing module was surprisingly challenging, and that was actually her lowest-scoring section. Her advice would be not to underestimate the writing component and to spend enough time practising it.

She gave huge credit to her supervisor, Dr. Sumit Majumder. His support throughout Asma’s journey has been immense.

About Dr. Sumit Majumder, Asma’s statement reflected how incredibly knowledgeable and approachable he was, and how he was always willing to guide students in the right direction.

One final piece of advice she gave to aspiring students is not to be discouraged if things don’t work out immediately. Most students only see the acceptance emails, not the countless rejections behind them.

She emphasised focusing on building skills, gaining research experience, and being genuinely curious about one’s field of study.

“Keep learning, keep applying, and don’t be afraid to send that email to a professor. Sometimes a single email can completely change the direction of your career,” she concluded.